I picked up a Supermicro 2042G-TRF chassis that has a H8QGI-F motherboard with 4 Opteron 6128 CPUs a month ago. Needed RAM so I picked up 8 packs of 2GBx2 Kingston HyperX Genesis PnP 1600MHz memory. Put the memory in and no problems, motherboard detects 32GB of RAM.

Goal with this system is just to run FAH.

Problem I am having is what OS to run? I'm a bit of a Linux noob but tried the latest Ubuntu desktop but runs terrible with the built-in graphics, just hard to do anything. Tried the server edition with GUI installed same thing. I see that it has a PCI-E slot so I go out and get a low profile GT 210 video card. I changed the JPG1 jumper on the motherboard to disable the on-board video so now it won't go past the bios screen to boot up a OS. Even getting into the bios is hit or miss.

I installed Windows 7 on it using the built-in graphics and it actually works decent enough to get around and do things. Folding with CPUs in windows 7 isn't the greatest I read.

So any advise what to do with this thing to get FAH going good? Am I missing something?

I picked up a Supermicro 2042G-TRF chassis that has a H8QGI-F motherboard with 4 Opteron 6128 CPUs a month ago. Needed RAM so I picked up 8 packs of 2GBx2 Kingston HyperX Genesis PnP 1600MHz memory. Put the memory in and no problems, motherboard detects 32GB of RAM.

Goal with this system is just to run FAH.

Problem I am having is what OS to run? I'm a bit of a Linux noob but tried the latest Ubuntu desktop but runs terrible with the built-in graphics, just hard to do anything. Tried the server edition with GUI installed same thing. I see that it has a PCI-E slot so I go out and get a low profile GT 210 video card. I changed the JPG1 jumper on the motherboard to disable the on-board video so now it won't go past the bios screen to boot up a OS. Even getting into the bios is hit or miss.

I installed Windows 7 on it using the built-in graphics and it actually works decent enough to get around and do things. Folding with CPUs in windows 7 isn't the greatest I read.

So any advise what to do with this thing to get FAH going good? Am I missing something?

Thanks.

I ran my similar rig with 7 and it ran great for folding :)

And long time no see buddy I'm in AB to now we need to get a beer one of these days :)

Good luck with the new folding rig and you should of hit me up before getting that ram I have 64gb of ddr3 ecc 1600 ram that is just collecting dust

no no just give me everything lol ( kidding) man I wished I had that board . As 3Charlie says above follow muskies guide to a tea .
I actually am wondering if those 4p boards can run two different opteron sets at the same time like 6128s and 6234s

Thanks Charlie, got through part of it and Ubuntu is working a better now for some reason, I guess that computer doesn't like ps2 mice! Ill finish up tomorrow. Also don't need to worry about this thing overheating, it sounds like a jet about to take off! When it does get warm it actually does sound like its going to take off!

Hey Soul, Have to grab a beer for sure. I do the odd trip to Calgary so Ill have to visit ya when I make my way down! Damn, if I would of known you had that memory, I guess next time I better ask you before looking elsewhere.

Hey Tray, you don't even need a mouse or keyboard for that system. There's a NIC dedicated to be used as management/KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) that allows you to manage the server with a web browser through java. It's the NIC that is above some USB ports, while the other two are a bit lower.

You can give it a static IP address or allow it to get an IP address off of DHCP from your router. I use my board this way quite happily, I might add. I've installed Ubuntu and Windows through it with media mapped through the interface as well as USB sticks.

My H8QGi-F configuration only has three cables to it: 2 ethernet and 1 power.

__________________Xeven: How about 10^8.450980400142567e-001 -as a possible replacement for "10e"

Wow, Sweet I didn't know that feature could do all that! New to this server stuff. This would be great, I could toss this server in the basement because this thing is SO loud and massive. Once I'm back home I'll give it a shot, thanks!